Co-founded by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, Lorimer Beacon‘s founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events‘ and Dedstrange Records co-founder Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival over the course of the past couple of years have featured a few hundred handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from across Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the States.
By design the festival normally takes place about a week or so before SXSW. The festival’s co-founders have long viewed New Colossus as a pre-SXSW stopover that will give its lineups an opportunity to organically gain exposure, while filling a critical void in the city’s festival circuit.
Obviously, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, New Colossus wasn’t able to happen as scheduled last year, but New Colossus and 18th Ward Brewing hosted a live, outdoor concert series featuring local and regional acts at the brewery’s Bushwick location.
New Colossus happened as scheduled — and I saw a lot of great acts, met a lot of great folks and had a great time. (More on that later, because I’m so incredibly behind on my photo editing. The life of a photographer, right?) The Summer Sunday series has gone on to its second summer. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to every single show because of travel and the New York Rangers making a deep postseason run. But I’ve gone when I’ve can and have seen an interesting array of local, regional and in one or two cases international acts.
Back in August, I caught yet another eclectic showcase that featured folk duo We’ll Be Fine, soul singer/songwriter Tatiana Owens, indie rock/indie pop outfit Blonde Otter, singer/songwriter Meg Smith, punk rock outfit Die Spitz and indie rock outfit Cousin Oven.
Check out photos from the showcase below.
We’ll Be Fine
Tatiana Owens
Blonde Otter
Meg Smith
Die Spitz
Cousin Oven
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